It's a given among most blue-state intellectuals that Barack Obama will take office as president in January. That means looking past November's election to next year's Obama-tunities in Washington, D.C. The most obvious slot for aspiring Valley vets would be Obama's promised new position of national chief technology officer. A CTO slot has been one of Obama's talking points for months, but today reliable pot-stirrer Robert Scoble cracked the worm can open by throwing a list of names onto his blog:

Here’s a few names to get you thinking: Mark [sic] Andreessen? Dave Winer? Joel Spolsky? Tantek Celik? Molly Holzschalg? Meg Whitman? Bill Gates? Steve Wozniak? Caterina Fake? Overall, though, I still like the idea of Lessig in the White House. Oh, and wait until you hear what he says about how he’d retard corruption in the Capitol. The interview will be up in a couple of weeks on FastCompanyTV.

In case it's not obvious, Scoble is pitching himself for the job. Robert, you need to start playing it safe. Never say "retard," even as a verb. (Photo of Obama by AP/Alex Brandon; photoillustration by Jackson West)